From National Unification to Global Homeland, Modern Germany, 1860-Present

Three credits · Undergraduate

Germany has variously been described as a “land of writers and thinkers”, an antechamber of Nazism, and the face of post-1945 liberal-democratic Europe. What does it mean to be German? Is the nation a mere repository of Fascism? Can its entire history be reduced to a Sonderweg, a special path that leads inexorably to dictatorship, conquest, and racial extermination? This course will attempt to address these critical questions, beginning with the ascension to power of Otto von Bismarck and the drive to national unification. Three credits. Not offered 2026-2027.